As domestic skies open up, Karnataka looks at isolation afresh

Medical education minister K Sudhakar hinted at dropping the quarantining protocol altogether in view of the challenges involved in having to quarantine people arriving in large numbers at airports. “We are exploring all possibilities.

The state has also indicated a shift in the priority from containing the spread of Covid-19 to saving lives, as the country prepares to adapt to the new normal of living with the virus.

BENGALURU: Karnataka may do away with quarantining regulations for inter-state travellers after domestic flight operations resume on Monday.

Medical education minister K Sudhakar hinted at dropping the quarantining protocol altogether in view of the challenges involved in having to quarantine people arriving in large numbers at airports. “We are exploring all possibilities.

Should we home quarantine people or just stop quarantining at all,” he said, after attending a meeting of officials and public health experts in Bengaluru on Thursday.

The government may not be able to handle the sheer scale of quarantining people institutionally as the inflow of passengers will increase over the next few weeks, he said.

“We are looking at the capacity of our quarantining facilities and the number of people that may enter Karnataka from Monday,” he said.

The state is likely to release new protocols in two to three days, after a second round of discussion on Friday. As of now, about 1.1 lakh people are institutionally quarantined in Karnataka. There are about four lakh people waiting to enter the state. Political leaders and bureaucrats are not keen to continue with the system of 14 days of quarantining, be it institutional or home, for inter-state travellers as they say it kills the very purpose of easing the lockdown. “Most people who will fly down to the state once flight operations resume come for business purposes and you cannot impose two weeks of quarantining,” an official privy to the discussions at the government level told ET.

The state has also indicated a shift in the priority from containing the spread of Covid-19 to saving lives, as the country prepares to adapt to the new normal of living with the virus. “The focus, henceforth, will be to ensure quick medical support to a Covid-19 patient in need of immediate help. Saving lives is the biggest challenge before us,” Sudhakar said.